Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Gaia News Brief 1.4.2015

Best Song Of The Day While On CallFlock of Seagulls -- Space Age Love Song
Oh my GOSH Ross you are awesome! I thought this was just 'I'm falling in love' as the title. I am SMILING from ear to ear right now for your starting the twenty-two hour day (all at work) with THIS song in the morning.

I love you so very much. I know no matter what, everything is going to be OKAY.

Good Luck On Finding An Assistant For Your Surgery Buddy!
Apparently in the past, a surgeon would make three thousand dollars per case. The assistant would make one thousand dollars.

Now with the 'lump sum payment' method, a breast cancer surgeon will make fifty dollars for all the pre-op, post-op, and intra-operative care, as well as her training and expertise!

In the meantime, surgeons are using Physician Assistants and RN First Assists to save money while they are in the OR, as nobody wants to First Assist any more because there is no money in it--they can't afford to stay in business if they do.

My Lesson
I hate hard boiled eggs. I have hated them for fifty years. They taste like sulfur, the texture is gross, and they make me gag. I hate them so much I always dyed RAW eggs at Easter, so I wouldn't have to waste them.

Two days ago, I had a gap in my schedule before a meeting. I went to Starbucks. Ross showed me to get the tray with the cheese and the nuts for a snack.

Once I got there, I saw only ONE tray with cheese. It was the 'Protein Pack'. And my heart sank as in it there was one peeled, hard boiled egg. Along with the other things.

I figured I would skip it. But I was talking with a friend online, and I realized, THIS is a lesson!
So with the packet of salt and pepper, apprehensively I took my first bite.

Yep. I hated it just as much as ever. I made the face Anthony makes when I have him eat vegetables. I felt like I was going to gag, throw it up, and choke all at the same time. I reached for the apple slice, and with a bite of that I got some relief.

It took me SEVEN bites of hell to get through that egg.

I told my friend, 'I am doing this because I love God MORE than I hate hard boiled eggs!'
And the moment I finished the egg, a truck parked next to the window, with the words, 'Gala Foods'.

I passed my test.

The Talking Tech
Yesterday was not a good day in the OR. The technologist had this energy that was intrusive. In the locker room she introduced herself loudly, 'Hi I'm Lorelei'! I was like, 'Wow, what was THAT?'

She was in my O.R. She was a traveler. She wasn't one of our usual. And she TALKED and TALKED and TALKED. Later in the day, she even told a surgeon what instruments to use for the case!

It was awkward when she asked a surgeon, 'do you work out? are you single?'...again it was the energy and the lack of ability to connect that was the cause of her being sent home early.

She asked the nurse educator, 'What happened? Why?'

And the nurse told her, politely, what was uncomfortable and unexpected from her as a per diem employee...

She said, 'I've heard that one about the talking at other places too.'

And the nurse said, 'You just might want to think about that.'

Although she had her years of experience, her BEHAVIOR was consistent with what is seen in a County Hospital. There, 'everything goes' on the behavior, people are not friendly, they just 'act like themselves' everywhere they go, and there really isn't much effort to put the patient first...and ensure they feel 'special' and 'pampered' in addition to being given care they need.A University Hospital is kind of the same, only it's a LEARNING environment. A surgeon told me at a local one the anesthesia team did a prone LMA 'because we can'. It was making the surgeon uncomfortable, and the patient surely didn't have any say in it at all.Our hospital is 'moving on up'. It ONCE was like a 'small community hospital' and it's getting way fancier...many people have been let go. We are striving to ensure it's almost a Beverly Hills type experience for our patients. This means to go into 'service' mode, like a nice hotel, and to deliver the care with utmost professionalism--both to the patient and to the rest of the team.
As you can see, this requires a bit of sophistication on the part of the healer...to do the job that needs to be done will skill and ease, and to add the grace on top of it too!

"Believe it or not, you are a champion. You and I faced a very difficult (challenge), and you, like me, have triumphed over this trial. You have a new and different life now--a new normal. It is important to remember that just because something bad happens to you, it doesn't mean you are bad. You are still entitled to every possible happiness." Elizabeth Smart

Punishment

My gastroenterologist I was working with is VERY tall. He coached his kid's basketball game once. There was a boy who was always late and had excuses. To teach him, one time when he arrived dissheveled and late to a game, my friend the coach didn't let him play. Well..the GRANDFATHER was drunk. He yelled at the coach, and the boy cried in horror, and who knows what was going to happen to that boy at home that night? My friend has regretted it ever since...and wished he had never made that terrible decision. How could he have known what was going to happen with that child on his team who is under his care?

At the Doctor's Dining Room, the subject of punishment by teachers in school came up. The doctor from India had a teacher wedge a pencil between his fingers and squeeze them. It was most painful and didn't leave marks. It goes over the ring finger horizontally and under the pinkie and long fingers. Teachers just did it. My mom in Sicily had her hands hit with a ruler by the nuns. Once she came home with more bruises than that. My grandfather went to the school, and beat the nun, or scared the daylights out of her, for hurting his child. The pathologist from Mexico was in a private school, and was beaten with a ruler. Nobody believed him; the school was expensive. Once the mother believed, she pulled him out of the school, and he was in public schools ever since. The Vietnamese spoke of caning. And I was spanked the last time by my father--I told him and I NEVER lie to him that I had to pee first before he spanked me. He did and I wet and he went, 'Oh Christ! She wasn't lying!' and he never spanked me again.

Actually, in Mexico and in India, our schools are way worse--like two years behind--their curriculum. It's not true that American, particularly California schools, are very good. I think we rank 48th out of the 50th states. This is because, according to the same doctors, 'More useful things, more rigorous things, are taught elsewhere than here.'

Love it To Death

Last night in my boxed salad from work, I got HALF a hard boiled egg. I knew it was my follow up lesson on my resolve. I slathered it with tabasco and salt and pepper and ate it in four bites, choking and gagging the whole way.

I STILL love God more than I hate hard boiled eggs!

And when I went to my locker to put away my things? There was a large print Gideon's New Testament.

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About Me

I am a medical doctor who works in a hospital. I do anesthesia. I am also a Reiki practitioner. While I do anesthesia, I also make this form of Energy Healing available to my patients who wish to have it while their procedure is taking place.
I have quite a following at work. Many patients and coworkers request my services. Recovery room RN's love me. All of my patient report the same thing: they felt no pain. One friend's spouse actually made her take two of her pain pills at home because he absolutely could not believe she felt no pain after gallbladder surgery!